“It's great bein' 47 years old and still bein' able to win races,” said Dave Darland after winning the 73rd running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Perris Auto Speedway in Perris, Calif. Darland has been driving race cars for 35 of his 47 years and is one of only five drivers to have won the USAC Silver Crown Championship, USAC National Sprint Car Championship, and USAC National Midget Championship. He even won one other Turkey Night Grand Prix six years ago on the pavement at Irwindale.

But he needed all that experience to win on the clay in Perris in the 98-lap main event Thanksgiving night. While track conditions were much better this year than last, when the clay got so much rubber drivers said it felt like the cars were running on asphalt, the caution-strewn race kept anyone from padding a good lead.

Two drivers, Parker Price-Miller and Andrew Felker, got under the 17-second mark in qualifying, the first time any midget driver has ever done that. So a fast race seemed likely.

Felker jumped out to an early lead and was at the front for the first half of the race, the first 25 laps of which were run under green. Just when it seemed the race would go full-speed for all 98 laps, the yellows, and then the reds, started coming out. Spins and stalls brought out 11 yellows in the next 50 laps until Cody Swanson cartwheeled down the front straight and brought out a an “open red,” stopping all cars where they were on the track. Swanson walked away from the wreck and everyone else was allowed to take on gas and adjust tire pressures while they waited.

Darland had first gotten into the lead about halfway through the race and traded the spot with Damion Gardner. The yellows allowed Darland to tap all that experience he had.

“All them restarts, some of 'em I did right,” Darland said. “I guess my years of experience seeing things happen on the racetrack I was able to get in the right spot.”

The right spot was out front at the finish, which he did for his second Turkey title.

The Turkey Night Grand Prix has a long and storied history stretching back across some of the greatest tracks in Southern California. Winning drivers include such racing heroes as Bill Vukovich, Tony Bettenhausen, AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Jason Leffler and Tony Stewart. The first 14 Turkey Nights were run at LA's famous Gilmore Stadium, starting in 1934. But the race has run at tracks all over Southern California, including 30 times at Ascot.

“We're proud to continue the tradition by bringing it back on the dirt,” said J.C. Agajanian Jr., son of the famous Ascot race promoter J.C. Agajanian. “Everybody loves it.”

Everybody does. Happy Thanksgiving.

Mark Vaughn
- After slumming in Europe five years covering F1 etc. Mark Vaughn interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show has been with us ever since because no one else will take him. Anyone?
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